Jan said:
Parents/grandparents/adults in general who leave guns around the house where kids live/visit are to blame. If you must own a gun, lock the darned thing away!!!!!!! :devious2:
I have loaded guns on the walls. My kids dont touch them. They used to want to though, so I trained them on them and how to be safe with them. Then later I had to take a mean dog to the woods and put it down. I asked if they wanted to go and they were jumping with joy.
They werent so happy when they saw the real thing. They were sick at their stomach and felt terrible for the animal. They realized then the difference between tv and real life. They havent bothered me about the guns since then, and that was several years ago.
If you are gonna have guns, make sure your kids respect them and not think of them as "grownup toys". That is exactly what I did. If you cant handle or dont want such a responsibility, you shouldnt have a gun. I'll bet that in all the school shootings, thats the firt time they have fired a gun other than maybe at some bottles (if that), and definitly the first time they ever killed anything. Because they arent raised properly with guns, then in the heat of a moment they grab a gun and go shooting at school. I have already nipped that in the bud with my kids. This might sound strange, but there's a difference between knowing what a gun can do, and KNOWING what a gun can do.
It's like drunk driving. Sometimes no matter what you show or teach a kid, they still end up driving drunk. They dont truly "get" it until they actually kill someone. Same with guns. In a safe environment, I let my kids see the real thing. It made a world of difference. They became totally different kids after seeing that.
It would never happen, but if classes of kids could be taken out and shown the exact same thing my kids saw, it would stop a lot of these problems with school shootings before they happen. Animal rights activists would be all over it, as would lawyers and lawmakers, and even the shrinks would have their useless say in all of it.